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RE: How would You prevent another Sandy Hook?

I tried to reply to this topic elsewhere, but it wouldn’t accept my comment for some reason. So here is what I posted:

Have to agree that we need societal change vs. a gun ban. I was raised “country,” and had a 12-ga shotgun in my closet, loaded, starting around age 12 (or earlier…can’t recall at this point). I hunted before elementary school, and was told by my dad who worked third shift that if anyone broke in to shoot them. I’ve never killed a civilian in my life!However, I was instructed well in the use of guns, gun safety, etc., and was raised in a family who did not resort to lethal force to solve anything at all. The very worst thing I ever saw or was involved in were fist fights. And back in my very young years, we kids would fight, and afterwards become friends. We were establishing the pecking order…

Those days are gone. Long gone. See, my mother didn’t work, and was there to keep an eye on me, and to hold me responsible for my actions. I wasn’t a latchkey kid like so very many are today. And when I screwed up, I got a “whoopin'”, and dang well didn’t “do that again!” Of course nowadays those “whoopins” are considered child abuse.

Now, as a father, I whooped my kids when they were young, and sometimes I shouldn’t have. Many times I shouldn’t have. But neither of them have grown up to be violent, and I have since made amends with them regarding the times I whooped ’em unnecessarily. But regardless, they by God learned how to behave.

All that said, I was also taken care of by my parents. Most of the time at the expense of Father & Son time, but still, I had plenty of food, good clothes (not name brand designer stuff, but good nonetheless), my mama did my laundry and hung it up/folded it, put it up, etc., and was up before me to cook me breakfast before school for as long as I was in school. And I’m not talking about Pop Tarts either. I mean stuff like eggs & toast (sometimes bacon as well), or oatmeal, cream of wheat, etc. Good, hearty stuff.

And though my family was very dysfunctional in many ways, I was also taught ethics and morals by being taken every Sunday to church. It was drilled into me (unfortunately in a bad way sometimes), that some things are just plain wrong to do, and we were to love our neighbor as ourselves, be kind, be polite, and be considerate, etc.

Then I had my “military time and training,” which reinforced ethics and morals as well as proper behavior, and most importantly, personal integrity.

Now compare that to the latchkey, Pop Tart eatin, TV baby-sitted, ignored children of today, and perhaps we can all see about where and when things went wrong.They went wrong when both parents began to work. It changed from “extra” income, to “we need it” income. People started living beyond the means of ONE parent’s paycheck, trying to “keep up with the neighbors,” and all that bologna, and next thing you know, parents’ careers started coming before their children. And that’s totally best case. In some areas/neighborhoods, it has become ONE parent families where the ONE parent HAS to work (rightfully so), and then instead of taking care of children when they get home, they prefer to go “hit the club” and party out.Or, we also have the drug addicted parents, alcoholic parents, abusive parents, etc., etc. et al ad nauseam. I’m NOT blaming the school shootings on parents, but I’ll be danged if the majority of American parents are devoting a reasonable/ample amount of time to raising their kids. Heck, often the parents are kids themselves, and have no clue how to raise one because they themselves were not raised properly.

It then turns into a snowball effect that has created society as we now know it.

IF we want to take back control of our society, it must start with taking back control of, and raising, our children. No more letting them “stay all night at a friend’s house” when we know they will be doing things they ought not, while we and our spouse “go out” or whatever…putting our kids off onto other parents, or onto no one at all, as is typically the case. How many of us demand to meet the parents of the kids who OUR kids go to spend the night with? Hmmm….if we did, we may see some things we shouldn’t be allowing.

Then we wonder why, after seeing all the violent acts on the news, and all the attention the offenders get in the media, that our kids, who we have deprived of positive feedback, are willing to accept ANY feedback, even NEGATIVE feedback, by mimicking the killers they see on TV while we are out drinking and carousing with our girlfriend or spouse or whomever. We wonder why? Really?

Our society is FUBAR. Totally and completely FUBAR. And it needs to be taken back by “We the People” RIGHT NOW. To hell with gun control. How about “Kid control?” How about mandated “Parental Responsibility?” How about holding parents who are complicit in a gun crime by not properly storing their weapons get prosecuted equally with their child offender? I bet that would jack up the sale of gun lockers/safes/vaults. Until “We the People” take back our own American Societal Ideals, then we MUST prevent unsupervised access to firearms by our kids.

It is sadly no longer a day when a 12 year old boy like I was can have a loaded shotgun in the closet and nothing bad happen. Today is now the day when the guns must be locked up and inaccessible to unsupervised kids.

Hell, legislate that! Legislate a measure that requires proper storage of firearms, else the risk of being charged equally with the child that accesses them and commits a crime. Or the burglar that steals the “loose” guns in the house and commits another crime. Dammit, lock up the guns away from kids and criminals, and change our ways to that of responsible adults. It is only when our kids see “responsible adult actions” from their parents, that they will begin to imitate US instead of the crazy ass Hollywood Action stars and the criminals they see on the TV we sit them in front of so that WE don’t have to deal with them ourselves.